In 2020, I found myself spending more time on YouTube than ever before (partly because, like everyone else, I was home more often than not). And as I noted this pattern, thanks to creators like Binging with Babish, Cultaholic, Rene Ritchie, Sam The Cooking Guy, UpUpDownDown, videogamedunkey, and others, I realized that YouTube was becoming a major destination for entertainment.

But every time I use the YouTube app on my iPhone, I am reminded of how this video platform has made a decision that should end. Yes, just like Twitter did with Fleets, YouTube added its own short-form vertical video and beat Snapchat Stories.

Instagram, and only Instagram, managed to beat Snapchat's main feature with a quality user experience and vertical videos that blend well with the post feed. Of course, TikTok is also doing well by remixing Stories into something entirely new. But YouTube showed no effort in its copycat attempt. That's the problem.

If your Stories feature (like Fleets and YouTube Stories) looks low-quality and half-baked, then everyone knows you're trying to fit a square peg on a desk with no holes. Stories will just pop up on one of your apps and you'll wonder, "Who asked for this?" You have to wonder. Presumably, in Twitter's case, an investor, but CEO Jack Dorsey denied it.

But YouTube needs to remove this stupid decision. Because it's yet another section of the app that is preventing people coming to YouTube to view quality content. Also, while it definitely makes sense for Twitter to distribute stories, it does not belong on YouTube since YouTube is already a video-focused platform. There is no need for more videos. [In my app, the YouTube Stories section is named "Short videos" (they didn't steal "short videos" like some other apps) because it's filled with junk videos from people I've never followed or heard of. And many of them I have no interest in at all (sorry, YouTube, your algorithm is as bad as ever).

The last time I checked, the scum they were throwing at me started with "Biggest GameStop screwup ever," which is the kind of tongue-in-cheek salaryman content that filled Snapchat's Discover section. And since none of the nearly 100 channels I subscribe to create content for this feature, I doubt it will be popular with content creators.

Scrolling down that column, that is, the column that could have provided the next video of someone I know and like and kept me on the app, reveals even worse tabloid garbage. Worst grammar and subject matter?" A US soldier cheated on his wife and this is what happened. #shorts."

Maybe you like this kind of spam content, but YouTube should be allowed to get away with this crap already...back when YouTube offered the option to "reduce such content," I always section, I voted to remove it. Now? it's built into the YouTube app and I get to write this article.

The existence of this section will keep me away from the YouTube app and continue to use the TV version, which is not bothered by this waste of space I don't know if YouTube realizes how much I find this feature alienating, but by 2021 I will hopefully be gone by 2021.

And let this be a lesson to all other apps. But few apps really need it, Twitch, we're looking at you. But Twitch's key streamers need to buy into it to get content relevant to what fans go to Twitch for.

But to start vertical videos with little actual reason? That was Quibi's move, and we all know how that turned out.